LONDON CITY!!, we are about to shut you down!
Upfront & Personal Global Management Consultants proudly presents One Africa Music Fest London, UK. One Africa Music Fest is coming to London for the first time ever on Saturday, 13th May 2017.

This event will take place at The SSE, London, UK.
Guests will fill THE SSE ARENA, WEMBLEY to see live performances from Africa’s biggest musical stars.
The first list of confirmed artists – performing on the 13th of May 2017 are Africa’s Energetic Duo, Pop Sensation P-Square, East Africa’s biggest female Afro-pop artist Victoria Kimani, the prince of highlife aka the slow winding – sexy ladies’ man Flavour N’abania, famed “Gongo – Aso” crooner 9ice, Nigeria’s very own ‘Beast from the East’ Phyno. and Nigeria’s Queen of pop music Tiwa Savage

This unforgettable night will be hosted by Africa’s King of R&B, Banky W!
Tickets will go on sale Friday, 20th January 2017 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased by calling +44 844 815 0815 or online at ssearena.co.uk or axs.com. Tickets are also available in person at the SSE Arena Wembley.

In 2013 Mr Eazi released his debut 13 track mixtape titled “Ready to blow” and what a wonderful last few years this young man has had. He describes his style of music as being a fusion of “Ghanaian bounces, Ghanaian highlife, Nigerian chord progressions, and Nigerian patterns”. The Afropop musician quickly became a fan favourite on the continent with hit releases like ‘Bankulize’ and ‘Skintight’ and has garnered massive international attention.

His recent mixtape: ‘Accra to Lagos’ released in February of this year reached number 4 on the International billboard chart as a testament to his meteoric rise. His song ‘Skintight’, in particular, has earned him a lot of publicity lately — winning an award for the song at WatsUp TV’s maiden Africa Music Video awards in December last year and just last week the song was used in a Ciroc advert featuring P Diddy. P Diddy shared the advert on his Instagram page on the 8th of April and it has already garnered over 140,000 views! It’s safe to say the sky is Mr Eazi’s platform at this stage as his potential is limitless.

Wizkid, who signed Mr Eazi to his Starboy label last year, in an interview with channel 4 a few days ago talked about how he feels Africa is going to take over the world with its sound and I firmly believe Mr Eazi is one of those musicians who has what it takes to be one of the leaders in achieving this, and doing so in ways few before him have ever attempted. He is constantly churning out new music and is clearly a man on a mission—a mission whose goal is worldwide dominance.

Sensational Ugandan Reggae and Dancehall exponent MC Norman Ganja drops a viral tune ‘Bikini Riddim’. The banging new hit song shows the 3 time AFRIMMA nominee Mc Norman at his lyrical best as he whips magic on this new tune.

In the world of entertainment, it’s usually known and is a norm to see the artists at the forefront of this business. But it’s those behind the scenes doing their all, that are not always acknowledged. AfricaX5 sat down with Mr. Play, a man who knows a lot about working behind in the management and entertainment world.

Mr. Play, who was born Anthony Douglas, gave an insight on what it took him to build a business that would create opportunities for him. He states that it was mostly his dad’s “tough love” mentality and his work ethic that got his management business to take off and go international.

The entrepreneur, highlighted that his journey started off as him being a promoter. He went through this root because he realised that people that he looked up to such as “..diddy and Russell Simmons all started off as promoters” and later became forces to not reckoned with in business.

The half Jamaican and half Sierra leonean, humble beginnings had him push for success in any every area possible. Even when working in McDonalds Mr. Play saw a window of opportunity to promote. He said “I made sure I had the drive thru [shift] so I can promote my parties. I made McDonalds work!”

Thing’s weren’t all smooth sailing, as not all saw his vision of becoming the ‘ears and eyes’ of UK’s music and entertainment world. His dad was one amongst many who didn’t see this and was at first disappointed of his career choice; “My dad was heart broken when I didn’t go to university…he wasn’t pleased”. Nonetheless, he said “My pride got the better of me [so] I can’t give up even if I wanted to”. This led his dad to come round when he began to see his hard work paying off.

To get the full scoop clickhere to listen to the interview on sound cloud. Also keep a look out for the clip on our youtube channel.

On certain days you just need some bright colors in your life, and at times like that,Prince Eric Nichols has got you.

His vibrant illustrations of black public figures are uplifting and engaging; flashy enough to catch your eye, but full of detail to hold your attention. He may not actually be a prince, but he’s certainly familiar with the features of royalty.

While he creates images whenever he sees fit, some even get the blessings of his subjects once they’re done, like Janelle Monae, who reposted her portrait last year. If you want to buy a print, just DM him on the Gram and he’ll hook you up.

Solange

Janelle Monae

Versace, Versace, Versace

Jay Z

2Chainz

Malcolm X

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg Spring/Summer wrapped up Saturday night after four days of runway action at Nelson Mandela Square. We teamed up with Botswana-based photographer Uyapo Ketogetswe to bring us behind the scenes. Here, he takes us backstage at MBFWJ SS16.

By now you should know that Cape Town was the only city in Africa – out of 21 worldwide – where Kanye West brought his Pablo pop-up shop this weekend. The queue to the shop, which was on Bree Street, snaked all the way to Loop Street. On Friday, the first day of the store, hypebeasts, fashionistas and cool kids were there as early as 6am.

Only ten people were allowed in the shop at a time, which meant a longer queuing period. So, after every 30 minutes, people emerged with shopping bags full of Pablo merchandise.

Inside, there were a few rules: no fitting before purchase, no removing of clothes from display racks. And the security guards’ favorite – if you were only there to take pictures and not buy, then you must leave.

Items available included t-shirts, crew neck sweaters, caps and jackets, which all featured printed phrases from The Life Of Pablo album in gothic letters. The cheapest item was the Cape Town cap (R485). The most expensive, the military jacket, set you back R3654. The t-shirts, sweaters and caps were all inscribed Cape Town, just like they would be inscribed “New York” if the store was there.

Shoppers – who came in all ages, but were mostly young adults and teenagers – browsed around to tracks from TLOP. There wasn’t much variety in product, and some shoppers felt a bit letdown. “This is stuff from Season 1,” I heard someone scream as he left the shop.

Sabelo Mkhabela is a writer from Swaziland, currently based in Cape Town. He also drops award-winning tweets as @SabzaMK.

Jidenna follows up the video for his afrobeats-influenced single “Little Bit More” with the somber visuals for “Chief Don’t Run.”

The new Alan Ferguson-directed video follows Jidenna from his humble beginnings, sleeping next to oven doors for heat, through his quick rise to fame.

The “emotion picture,” as Jidenna puts it, sees the singer/rapper showing off some acting chops as he cycles through roles as the ‘chief,’ police officer, construction worker and a victim of police harassment.

Still no formal word on when we can expect the drop of Jidenna’s debut album Long Live the Chief—but this should hold you over.

Despite heat levels reaching 25 degrees in London, The black lives matter protests are still going strong.
Although there was a shaky start, hundreds of young people marched from Southwark Park to parliament. Twitter played a significant part in directing lost protestors to the bigger group which not only rose awareness to the #black lives matter protest but proved there’s strength in numbers when it comes to issues regarding black communities.

Today’s protest was pleasantly positive and powerful as drivers, and foreigners throughout the city showed support by beeping there cars or chanting along to show that #blacklivematter is open to all races from all walks of life.

Currently #blacklivesmatter is still dominating social media and communities not only in the US but also the UK. The issues regarding equality and racial discrimination is still well and truly active but the question is, will change be on the horizon ?

Last year, Air Zimbabwe and Ethiopian Airlines made major strides towards the inclusion of women in the aviation world with the launch of their all-women flight crews. Women continue to be at the forefront of African-based air travel with the establishment of South Africa’s Fly Blue Crane, the first airline to be founded by a black woman.

Fly Blue Crane, which has been operating domestically within South Africa since its inception last September, will be conducting its very first international flight when it launches its service from Cape Town to Windhoek on May 13. The airline is under the leadership of CEO, Sizakele Mzimela, who’s also the first black executive vice president of South African Airways and the first woman to be selected to the Board of the International Air Transport Association, AFKInsider reports.

Mzimela has previously been vocal about her desire to expand the airline outside of South African borders, with specific mention of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the DRC.

The airline exec, who has over 20 years of experience in the industry, shared some words of wisdom for female aviators in an interview with Runway Girl Network:

“You have to accept up front that your road will be more difficult than the pale white male sitting next to you,” she mentions. “It’s your job to say ‘nothing will stop me. I’m going to make it.’”